Amazon supersizes Kindle for textbooks, newspapers

Amazon's latest press event was used to roll out a large-format Kindle, along …

Amazon is developing a habit of placing its New York City press events at topic-appropriate venues. Its last one, during which it introduced the Kindle 2, was held in the Morgan Library. This time around, the setting was an auditorium at Pace University, which hinted that rumors of an educational initiative were on the mark. In fact, all the rumors turned out to be on the mark—there will be a new, large-screen Kindle DX on sale this summer, and it will be paired with a new effort by newspaper publishers to get more subscribers via the device. But the details of the publisher and education initiatives weren't available today, and the new device isn't vastly different from the Kindle 2.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos started things off by reiterating that the company's ultimate goal is to have every book ever written available wirelessly in under 60 seconds. So far, it's a bit short, having 275,000 e-books available at the moment. The good news, however, is that sales of those are up to 35 percent of Amazon's total where both a print and e-book version are available. Those numbers leaped after the Kindle 2 introduction; prior to that, they appear to have plateaued at under 15 percent.

Amazonian chieftain Jeff Bezos explains why the Kindle is as good as a book.

Bezos then went off on a bit of a weird tangent, suggesting that some sort of Kindle device would usher us into the truly paperless world. "Paper is worth the hassle of printing, because it's just better," Bezos said, standing in front of an image of an ink cartridge an saying "we sell a lot of those." Apparently, "all that light shining in your eyes" from active matrix screens makes for eye strain, and we'd all happily ditch both printing and reading on screen if we just had a the right combination of E Ink screen and software. I don't know what planet Bezos is living on, but I could spend an entire article outlining where that argument is off.

In any case, he used it as a launching pad to introduce the Kindle DX, the big-screen version of the device. With a 9.7-inch screen, it certainly can display documents in a more comfortable format, and it has been paired with a native PDF renderer that means the end of document conversion. Now, simply plug in the device to a computer via USB, drop the PDFs in place, and they're good to go. The DX also comes with 3.3GB of storage, meaning that you can happily store a pretty significant number of documents, provided they're not too image-heavy.

A standard-sized business card indicates the Kindle DX's scale.

The DX also has accelerometers, and the software will rotate the screen to match however you hold it. That's especially nice considering that the DX lacks the double-sided arrangement of buttons on the regular sized device. In another indication that the company is making strides when it comes to interface design, if you rotate it upside down, the four-way pointer adjusts so that directing the cursor still works as you'd expect it. To fit the bigger screen without turning the device into a cafeteria tray, the keyboard has been compressed vertically, and the keys are now wider ovals. They also have a more pleasant action, which will make things like taking notes easier to manage.

Content deals

And Amazon fully expects people to be taking notes with the device. Next fall, a number of universities will be running pilot programs with the DX; Bezos listed Arizona State, Case Western, Reed, Princeton, and the University of Virginia. Pace itself, the host of the event, apparently completed a deal too late to be included, but had someone in the lobby, announcing its participation. Pace may actually be the most interesting of the lot, as its student population is very ethnically and linguistically diverse, and generally commutes to and from classes. The campuses will have access to a decent collection of materials, since Amazon has cut deals with three leading providers of textbooks: Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Wiley.

What will these programs look like? Will the students get subsidized devices and texts? Nobody would say; Amazon spokespeople simply said each campus would describe the structure of its program when plans are finalized later this year. All that was said is that consumers expect their digital text to be cheaper than one that requires raw materials, and Amazon expects that textbook makers will adapt to consumer expectations.

A similar lack of detail characterized the deal with traditional print companies. The Boston Globe, New York Times, and Washington Post would all be starting pilot programs with the release of the DX, but all that was revealed about them was that they'd offer discounted rates to people willing to commit to long-term subscriptions. The Times' Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. came on the stage to say that the Kindle was an important step for newspapers, but dropped lots of hints that he didn't view it as the last step, saying, "we're launching trials to determine how best to use it." He also suggested that his program would be limited to people in areas where home delivery isn't an option, which would severely limit its scope.

Newspaper content looks much better when supersized.

So, what to make of the announcements? Given the lack of detail, it's really hard to say. It wasn't even clear whether the parties involved really know what they're doing; Barbara R. Snyder, president of Case Western, praised the device as bringing students into a new era where their textbook content and documents mingle. But she also said that the Kindle would let them exchange documents without the need for WiFi, while an Amazon spokesperson said that the only way to exchange documents involved tethering to a computer and working from there. You also can't browse the Web to a PDF and access it from the Kindle, meaning a trip to the desktop computer is needed in those cases, as well. If Amazon's vision is wireless access to everything, it clearly still has a lot of work to do.

As for the device itself, giving consumers another point on the balance between compact form factor and screen size is undoubtedly a good thing, as is the built-in PDF reader. The documents chosen by Amazon to highlight the feature looked excellent, but I'll reserve judgment until I put a few of my own on one of the devices. In all other respects, however, it's just a big version of the Kindle 2. Well, all respects but one, and that may be the deal-breaker: a hefty $489 price tag.